Mitsubishi could soon offer Australia’s cheapest new EV

Mitsubishi Australia could soon undercut Chinese brands including MG, GWM and BYD – and Hyundai with its upcoming Casper SUV – to offer Australia’s most affordable new EV.

carsales understands the pint-size Mitsubishi eK X electric micro-van could land Down Under with a potential starting price between $30,000 and $35,000 plus on-road costs, allowing it to comfortably pinch the mantle of Australia’s most affordable EV from the BYD Dolphin (from $38,890 plus ORCs).

Mitsubishi Australia recently imported a single example of the diminutive five-door, four-seat Japanese kei-car to gauge interest from the public and media.

However, one obstacle could stand in the way of Mitsubishi Australia signing off on the project: the fact it won’t achieve a five-star ANCAP rating – a pre-requisite for many fleet buyers.

“This is a bigger discussion. I’m not anti-ANCAP, but the reality is that car meets Japanese safety regulations, but it does not meet ANCAP five-star,” explained Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited chief Shaun Westcott.

“We would probably get a three-star rating under ANCAP.”

While kei-cars (which measure less than 3.4m long, 1.48m wide and 2.0m high, and have engine capacity of less than 660cc unless it’s an EV) are massively popular in Japan, there have been several unsuccessful attempts to sell them in Australia – including the eK X’s predecessor, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, which was discontinued in 2013 after a three-year stint.

“We brought the i-MiEV to market and no-one wanted it. We lost money. The reality is we have a job in telling consumers about the benefits,” Westcott admitted.

Now, the focus of the eK X shifts to safety and, specifically, whether Australians are ready to embrace the idea that a three-star car still offers ‘adequate safety’.

Doing so would require a rethink from Aussie consumers who continue to be told by ANCAP that, to be deemed ‘safe’, a car needs to meet its increasingly stringent requirements for a five-star rating.

Yet the MG3 remains Australia’s most popular light car despite being ‘unrated’ by ANCAP, as is the pint-size Hyundai i20 N hot hatch and dozens of other popular models that lost their safety ratings last year when they expired after six years.

Meantime the new MG5 small sedan and Mahindra Scorpio off-road SUV were slapped with a zero-star ANCAP safety rating in December.

The Hyundai Venue light SUV was rated four-star back in 2019 and the Korean brand recently hit back at ANCAP’s call to make the brand-new Kona small SUV safer following its shock four-star rating in January, saying that a four-star car based on the latest 2023-2025 ANCAP protocols is safer than a five-star car based on 2020-2022 protocols.

While Mitsubishi says a five-star rating remains non-negotiable for high-volume models like the ASX, it’s more open to releasing low-volume models like the eK X without a five-star ANCAP rating.

“The problem in Australia is that we have this [attitude] that it’s five stars or nothing. If it’s not five-star, then don’t buy it,” Westcott said.

“We brought that car to Australia to take the pulse. Because ultimately the consumer decides.

“I’ve lived in various countries around the world where four stars is good safety and three stars is adequate safety – particularly for a small city car that generally doesn’t do more than 60km/h, doesn’t get out of the city, range is 180km and it is intended to be driven for a week in a city.

“We could bring that car to Australia right now as an affordable full-EV option. There’s one obstacle, it does not meet ANCAP five-star.”

Mitsubishi is understood to have studied the pricing of the latest Toyota Yaris as part of its consideration for an electric kei-car in Australia. The new Yaris controversially rose by $7000 in price back in 2020, partially on account of its added safety equipment.

“I could bring a car to market that is fully EV and ready to go today, but the question is ‘Is the market ready for it?’” Westcott said.

“Mitsubishi is not against safety, I’m not anti-safety. That’s the wrong message.

“I’m very careful to protect and defend the brand. We do not want Mitsubishi to be branded as a company that does not care about safety.

“But are there levels of safety that are adequate?

“We have brought a [eK X] car to Australia and we are taking the pulse of society. We have a very close collaboration with our parent company, we are talking to them. Whether it’s this generation or the next generation, I personally believe that there’s an opportunity for that car,” he said.

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